PayPal CEO Uses Bitcoin to Pay for His New Ostrich Cowboy Boots

(Bloomberg) -- Dan Schulman is the proud owner of the world’s first pair of cowboy boots to be bought using Bitcoin on PayPal. But he may have wanted to wait to make his purchase.

The 63-year-old chief executive officer of PayPal Holdings Inc., known for being partial to boots and jeans, used the payment giant’s new “Checkout with Crypto” service that allows customers to sell cryptocurrencies to pay for goods from the millions of merchants with a PayPal button on their websites.

“That’s pretty cool,” Schulman said in a two-minute video the company posted of him making the purchase of Lucchese ostrich boots from Bronco Western Wear. “You can just use your crypto balance as a funding source like you would your PayPal balance, or your credit card or your debit card. It’s just another funding instrument.”

PayPal has for months been teasing the new service, which also allows consumers to use Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum or Bitcoin Cash. Crypto enthusiasts hope it will bring a new era for digital currencies that allow them to be a utility that consumers can use to pay for basic goods and services. Bitcoin rose almost 4% on Tuesday following PayPal’s announcement.

Given the volatility of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, choosing when to click “buy” can be a challenge. In the video, Schulman can be seen agreeing to convert 0.00540884 Bitcoin when the digital currency was valued at $55,279.87 to pay for the size 9 1/2 boots, which sell for $299. That shows the peril of using the cryptocurrency as a form of payment, with Bitcoin valued at $59,179.62 by Tuesday morning.

PayPal won’t charge a transaction fee to checkout with cryptocurrencies, the company said in a statement Tuesday. Instead, the cryptocurrency conversion spread will be built into the conversion from crypto to U.S. dollars.

©2021 Bloomberg L.P.